


The Mirror Of Your Dreams

by PepperF



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Babyfic, F/M, Kidfic, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 19:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4717925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperF/pseuds/PepperF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five things about Jeff and the name 'Sebastian'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mirror Of Your Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks very much to Bethany for looking this over! *adds 'difference between Target and Walmart' to list of things I didn't know about America* :)
> 
> The theme from _The Neverending Story_ came up on random shuffle, and this was the result.

Five things about Jeff Winger and the name 'Sebastian':

1\. Jeff is ten when he first sees _The Neverending Story_ , and okay, so the story with the main kid, Bastian, hits uncomfortably close to home, what with the loneliness and the bullying. But the friendship between Atreyu and his horse, Artax, that's manly, that was _allowed_ , he can care about that without being a girl. AND THEN THE SWAMPS OF SADNESS, WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?!? Yeah, okay, Artax comes back in the end – but that almost doesn't feel real, not after he's seen the horse giving up and giving in, letting himself sink slowly into the swamp, disappearing, _dying_. It reinforces Jeff's belief that caring is for suckers. He'll never be over the death of Artax. Never. (Twenty-*cough* years later, he loses it completely as he watches Horsebot 3000 ascending to the stars.)

(At a low point in his life, it becomes frighteningly easy to identify with Artax, rather than Atreyu, in that moment in the swamp. He self-medicates with alcohol as an anesthetic against those feelings, even though he knows it's only a temporary solution, and one that comes with its own set of problems.)

(It's supposed to be a fucking kids' movie, god.)

2\. When he's fifteen, he buys a ticket to see _The Little Mermaid_ with the intention of sneaking into the theatre next door and watching the R-rated _Cyborg_ instead. But there are too many people around, and he ends up chickening out and going to see the movie on his ticket stub. He has a really great time. He can't stop humming 'Under the Sea' for a week.

3\. Sebastian. It's one of those aspirational names, right? Like having a house full of hand-carved furniture and paintings you purchased at little galleries on the Lower East Side, and a fridge stocked entirely at Whole Foods. A name chosen by people who know How To Adult, people who have cream-colored baby stuff because they aren't worried about it getting messed up (either because they can afford to throw it out, or because their baby is just that perfect, he's not sure which). A name that says 'stand back, it's okay, my parents know what they're doing'. Jeff has always believed in fake it till you make it.

4\. Sebastian David Winger (9.2lb, 20.5 inches) craps all over the cream-colored, handwash-only onesies that Jeff – in a fit of idealism before his son's actual debut – bought at the Gap. Short on sleep and reprioritizing rapidly, Jeff buys a couple packs of multicolored onesies from Target that can be tossed in the machine and don't show stains too badly. He looks more like Annie's kid when he's wearing rainbow stripes, anyway.

5\. Annie sticks valiantly to 'Bastian' as a nickname, despite its unsuitability for loud yelling (their son needs a lot of yelling at, go figure), but to Jeff and the boy in question, he usually goes by 'Baz'. "BAZ! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE AND TAKE OUT THE TRASH LIKE YOUR MOTHER TOLD YOU TO AN HOUR AGO!" "But da-aaaad..." "NOW, BAZ!"

(He doesn't know how he acquired that authentic 'dad' sound – god knows he never heard it from his own father – but he loves it.)

(Baz leans into his dad's side and laughs at the part where Bastian and his luckdragon friend, Falkor, chase down the bullies and make them jump into the garbage.)


End file.
